The Marvelous Sauce
When I select paintings to write about for this column, I often find myself deeply conflicted*. What is the best criteria for deciding what piece to discuss? Do I present you, the reader, with my favourite work by the artist? Perhaps a work that is rare or remarkable? Maybe a painting that has a clearly amusing subject matter? All of the above? None of the above? My modus operandi varies column-to-column and this week, finding myself buried up to my chin in the catalogue of Jehan-Georges Vibert**, I decided that the right choice would be the painting with the most copper cookware represented. I believe on this basis that I have made the finest possible selection.
This painting by the incomparable Vibert, probably finished in 1890 or thereabouts, features two of his favourite subjects: full-bodied cardinals and cookery. Sometime in the late 1860s Vibert decided that the real money was in genre painting and the genre that he selected was Cardinals of The Roman Church. Most of his paintings feature a brilliant centerpiece of flaming red in the form of a cardinal and the tone is almost always humorous, ranging from gently teasing to outright irreverent.
This particular work is one of the least mocking of his portrayals of the clergy with our cardinal having apparently prepared a sauce that surprises the cook by its excellence. If you think that the cardinal here bears a striking resemblance to the artist, then you’re quite right***. Vibert painted himself into his satirical paintings on occasion, which gives us an insight into the man’s robust sense of humour****. Additionally, by portraying himself preparing a “marvelous sauce”, Vibert is referencing one of his personal hobbies. He unabashedly pronounced himself an excellent cook who “... invented and prepared sauces that make [his] compatriots lick their fingers …”.
“Well (you might think) that seems a bit pompous, doesn’t it?” but nobody asked you and your friends think you pompous, so how about that?
As it happens, Vibert was one of those near-mythological creatures who manages to do everything in his life that any of us might want to, fulfilling each subsequent duty with extraordinary excellence and an unparalleled wit. Painter? Extraordinaire. Writer? Excellent. Sharpshooter? Decorated. Upholsterer? Apparently*****. Chins? Several.
*I mean, obviously not deeply, but we live in an age enraptured by a linguistic convention of exaggeration and I am no revolutionary.
**Speaking of chins.
***You nerd.
****As well as his robustness in general.
*****In 1895 he wrote that he was Molière’s superior when it came to proficiency at upholstery - one of the most remarkable claims ever made by anyone ever.